By Lewis Kiker | Executive Director
March 19, 2015 was a very important day for the town of Mbouma, Senegal, and a very important day for Andando as well. The town of Mbouma officially opened the brand new Mbouma Junior High School and it is now open and filled with happy students!
By partnering with local builders, school administrators, parents, happy students – and all our donors around the world!!! – we are very proud to be a part of this milestone for this rural farming town in southern Senegal. Starting last summer, we asked many of you to join us in building this landmark structure for this community in need, and you responded.
Working hard over the last 8 months, we walked together with the people in Mbouma in creating a safe and healthy learning environment that will be the home to future generations. They previously met in harsh conditions, which prompted some parents to pull their children from school thinking it was just not worth it. Now they have a place they can be proud of and a foundation to use as a building block for future successes.
The town marked the occasion with a big ceremony where everyone was invited. The village chief, the principal, the teachers, parents, and students were all there, as well as some regional dignitaries representing various government ministries. As is the case in Senegal, everyone makes a speech and the event is marked with much fanfare.
They concluded by the first official raising of the Senegalese flag – an important symbol for each school – the singing of the national anthem, and some refreshments for everyone.We were excited to be able to a part of this and we hope you will share in that excitement with us. This is also the first school construction project that Andando has done, and we hope it is just the first of many more to come! Thank you again for helping make this a reality!
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